In Training
by Vixen of Light
Summary: An in-training Mary Sue drops in on the Digidestined - can they teach her to be perfect instead of merely annoying?


A/N: Point number one, this is by NO MEANS a bashing of original characters. Its more poking fun at myself, as I can't write OC's to save my life. So. . .this came up. And all Mary Sues have to start somewhere, right? And look! I finally own something! Crys, her Digimon, and her ultra- contrived enemies are ALL MINE! Boy, I'm proud! And I even get a brief mention myself! Go me! *ahem* Yeah. This is really silly. Nevertheless. . .  
  
-  
  
"What is it?" screamed Tai into the rushing wind as the huge monster loomed closer to the group.  
  
"I don't know!" Izzy yelled back, squatting on the grass, shielded by a scrubby bush from the howling winds. The others crowded around him, covering heads with their arms, staggering, clutching their hats. "My Analyzer doesn't recognise it at all!"  
  
The hideous creature loomed closer, snarling in mindless fury. Its thick lips were parted to reveal rows of gleaming, needle-sharp teeth, saliva dripping from the corners of its mouth. Its flat, goat-like eyes were positioned high on its head, and its quadruped body as covered in black, matted fur. It was ugly, certainly, and stretched out a scaled, clawed hand towards the children.  
  
"Palmon, do something!" Mimi screamed, turning her eyes from the slavering shape. The tiny plant Digimon grabbed her partner's hand and looked up at her with watery eyes. "I'm just too tired to Digivolve, Mimi," she replied, frightened. "We all are, that last fight with the Bakemon was exhausting!"  
  
Tai fought the hurricane to stand at the front of the group. "We'll find some way of holding it off while you escape!"  
  
"Wait. . ." Matt yelled, pointing a finger upwards. "What's that?" Everyone craned their necks upwards to see a small shape of a humanoid persuasion hurtling, wailing, through the sky, arms and legs flailing.  
  
"It's a girl!" cried Sora. "She's. . .falling. . .catch her, Matt! She'll be hurt!"  
  
"Catch her?!" Matt muttered in disbelief, but he tried to position himself beneath the falling girl, even as the monster staggered closer. The wailing girl plunged through the air, and landed gracefully, straight in Matt's arms. With a grunt, they both collapsed to the ground, and Matt's eyes met the girl's. . .and. . .  
  
. . .frowned. The girl was, technically, beautiful. Or, rather, she should have been. Her eyes were huge, and a shining, unearthly violet colour. Her silky, flowing hair streamed down her back, and her unwrinkled clothes clung to her perfect figure. And yet, all of this seemed to cancel itself out and the result was a rather bizarre, unhuman looking creature.  
  
The girl gave a sharp grin, stood, and smoothed out nonexistent dust from her clothes. "Uh, hi!" she said uncertainly, waving at the group. The winds died down as she shook her hair, which at least served to distract the attacking monster. While it searched the skies with confused eyes, the girl turned to the group.  
  
"Who. . .are you?" TK asked, staring up at her unblemished, golden face.  
  
"My name's Crystilla," the girl announced. Her voice had a naïve little edge, which gave it a slightly harsh quality. "I'm the Mary Sue assigned to this fic',"  
  
Joe groaned. "Not another one of you," He sighed. Sora patted his shoulder. "Be brave, Joe. We all have to put up with them now and again."  
  
Mimi glanced critically at Crystilla. "Excuse me for saying so, but, if you're Mary Sue, shouldn't you be. . .uh, stunningly beautiful? You look a little. . odd. And graceful? Falling through the sky on your head isn't very graceful, you know. .." she blushed. "Not meaning to offend you or anything. . ." she giggled.  
  
Crystilla gave a weary sigh. "I'm only an in-training Mary Sue. I'm still learning."  
  
"Digidestined, huh?" Tai asked. The girl nodded. "Aren't we all? Crest of Nobility, most powerful Digimon ever, yadda yadda, you know the drill, I'm sure."  
  
"Aren't we meant to be in love with you by now?" added Matt. "I mean, sorry, but I'm still not feeling. . .very much at all. Apart from bruised," he glared at Sora. "You catch her next time, OK?" Sora gave an embarrassed giggle.  
  
Crystilla waved a hand. "That's why I'm training. I'm not very good at this Mary Sue thing. . .really? No feeling at all?" she gave him a hopeful look. Matt shook his head. "Sorry, nothing." The other boys shook their heads too. Crystilla sagged.  
  
Before the conversation could develop any further, the monster behind them began to snarl again, its attention returned to the group. Crystilla turned, and suddenly, a bright smile lit up her features. "Hey! Its Gurgamon!" Off of the others' blank looks, she explained, "He has an everlasting grudge against me for some reason or another. It's a criteria of the job, you see."  
  
"Well, you have some super powerful Digimon, right?" Joe said. The girl nodded, then glanced away. "What?" Joe narrowed his eyes.  
  
"Weeell. . ." the girl drew the word out. "By super powerful, yeah, we may have a problem. . ." from the bag on her back she drew forth a large, striped egg. "When she hatches, Undinemon will be amazingly powerful. . but she's not due to hatch yet. . .sorry. . ."  
  
The group gave a collective growl of annoyance. "Don't you have psychic powers yourself or something?" said Izzy. "All Mary Sues have powers of their own, by probability."  
  
"Not yet!" Crystilla wailed. "I told you, I'm training, I don't qualify yet! Hey, give me a break! I'm not used to this! It's the first time I've been used in a story!" she pointed her finger to the distant, cloudy sky. "Her Up There didn't see fit to give me powers of my own yet." She slumped her shoulders. "I told you, I'm not very good at this."  
  
Izzy tilted his head on one side to look at her. "Ah," he said. "Now you're trying the 'Get everyone feeling sorry for you" trick, right?"  
  
"Is it working?" Crystilla glanced up, tears welling in her luminous, glowing eyes.  
  
"Not really," said Izzy calmly. "On account of the slavering monster about to attack us. . .in fact, the logical course of action, if he is your mortal enemy, would be to let you fight him and just leave ourselves."  
  
"You can't leave me! I'll be kill. . .uh, destroyed!" wailed the girl, her fear real this time. Tai rolled his eyes.  
  
"Give us one good reason why we should save you. . ." he pointed a finger at her. "You've done nothing to help us, you're annoying, dangerous and whiny."  
  
Crystilla paused for a moment, the her eyes narrowed. "I'm an author avatar. I'll get Her Up There to. . .write that you explode! Yeah! Save me or you're mincemeat, goggle-boy. . .!"  
  
"You little. . .!" Tai snarled under his breath, but he knew perfectly well she could, and would, carry out her threat. He turned to Agumon with slumped shoulders. "OK, buddy, are you up to Digivolving?"  
  
"I think so," said the reptilian creature. "I've had some time to rest," Tai held his Digivice out. "Go for it, then!"  
  
Lights swirled and filled the air as Agumon started to burn as brightly with the same lights. Digital code whirled around him. "Agumon, Warp- Digivolve to. . .Wargreymon!"  
  
The Mega Digimon towered over the group as Crystilla ran to Tai's side. "You're so brave!" she cooed, clinging to the boy's arm. Tai shoved her off roughly. "Oh, shut up! You got what you want. I ain't falling for you, you blackmailing, airheaded, pain-in-the-neck. . ." Crystilla pulled back and turned her back on Tai with a snort.  
  
"Terra. . .FORCE!" Wargreymon blasted the monster Crystilla identified as Gurgamon with a supernova of sheer power, and the creature, with a wail of furious despair, deleted into data particles. Wargreymon shrink back into Koromon, and collapsed into Tai's outstretched arms.  
  
Crystilla grinned brightly. "Yay! Well, now that's over, can we have lunch? I'm starving!"  
  
-  
  
With reluctance, the group allowed the newcomer to sit with them and share their meagre meal. Crystilla was never silent. She chattered at all the humans and Digimon, stuffed food, and told them outrageous stories that may or may not have been a true part of her life.  
  
"Doesn't she ever stop talking?" Tai growled to Sora, sotto voce, as Crystilla grabbed Matt's arm and fluttered her eyelashes up at him, making crazy statements about him saving her life.  
  
Sora gave a patient smile "Hopefully she'll be posted off somewhere else soon, and we can get on with our adventures."  
  
Matt shook the girl off, and suddenly reached into his pocket, pulling out his harmonica.  
  
"Ooh!" squealed Mimi. "I know! All Mary Sues have gorgeous voices, right? You can sing us a song, Crystilla!"  
  
The girl gave a dubious grin. "Well, I'll try. . ." she said. "And by the way, you can call me Crys, you know. I didn't want a stupid name like Crystilla. . .but its traditional, apparently."  
  
"You could change it," offered Sora. "Make a stand. Choose your own name!"  
  
"Like I'd be allowed to keep it," Crys said bitterly. "But it would be nice to have a name I could spell. Even Her Up There keeps typing it wrong. Karen, what's wrong with that? Or Hannah, or Susan? Would it really hurt?" she sighed, and for the first time, the Digidestined felt some actual sympathy for her. "It can't be much fun, being Mary Sue. . .?" Sora queried carefully.  
  
"Pfah. . .you have no idea," said Crys. "You're supposed to be perfect, right? And you don't get much by way of training, you're just dumped in stories and you have no idea half the time. . .so you suck up to people, being beautiful," she spat the word like it was roadkill, "And you're always supposed to be able to save everyone and then you get written out at the end, in some noble, highfalutin way, and everyone grieves terribly, but what help is that to me? I'd be dead! Sorry. . .destroyed. Dub story, you know. But still. . .no-one ever asks me if I want that, if I even want to be in this story."  
  
The children avoided her eyes. What could you say? "Uh. . .I'm sorry," offered Mimi unsurely. Crys gave her a grin. "What can ya do?" she shrugged. "Anyway, this is just a training story for me. I'm not doing very well, hmm?"  
  
"Why don't you sing?" offered Matt. "I'll play this song. . ." he blew a few notes, and Crys nodded. "Ok? Right, one, two, three.!"  
  
Expectant expressions turned pained, and then desperate as Crys opened her mouth and started to sing. 'Sing' was perhaps not the best word to describe the sound, in fact. . .even Matt had trouble keeping a straight face as he played valiantly onward on his harmonica. At last the song ended, and Sora pulled her hat back above her ears, Izzy took his computer headphone earplugs out as discretely as possible, and the others breathed a quiet sigh of relief.  
  
"Well?" Crys looked from one to the other, and pursed her lips.  
  
"Perhaps a little more practice," suggested Matt gently. Crys folded her arms. "I'm a terrible Mary Sue. . ."  
  
Suddenly, more growls filled the air, turning everyone's gazes to one side. Yet another monster lumbered fiercely out of nowhere, and lurched towards the children. It was similar to the previous one, except its fur was a deep scarlet, and twisted horns wound up from its forehead.  
  
Crys gave a little shriek. "What is that?" Tai yelled at her. Crys turned, her face like stone. "Its Huyrsmon, Gurgamon's brother. He'. . ."  
  
Tai scowled. "No, let me guess. . .everlasting grudge, right?" Crys nodded meekly. Everyone turned to their Digimon, and pulled out their Digivices with a resigned sigh. Just as they were about to Digivolve, to everyone's amazement, Crys yelled, "Stop!"  
  
"Well, we have to destroy him!" Izzy pointed out, "And you can't help!"  
  
"I have to," Crys' lips formed a determined line. "I feel awful. I really, really suck at this, and I'm ruining your day. Now its my turn to do something useful. . ." Before anyone could answer, a light started to glow from her bag. "Huh?" The girl pulled out her Digiegg, which was trembling. Hairline cracks formed down the shell, and suddenly, it exploded. Crys merely stared upwards, agape, as a tiny baby Digimon form rose, shining so brightly the children could hardly bear to look at it. The Digimon grew, morphed shape. An In-Training Digimon, a Rookie, then a dolphin-like Champion, an Ultimate, and finally, an aquamarine warrior with flowing seaweed hair floated in the air before them. "Undinemon!" gasped Crys, stretching her hand to the Digimon.  
  
When she spoke, her voice was elemental oceans on rocks, thunder over the skyline. "Crystilla," the girl winced at the name, but Undinemon seemed not to see. "Your first words of Nobility have caused me to be born at last. I alone can stop this monster." The Digimon turned in the air with the grace of a dancer, and flung out her hands. "Tsunami Storm!"  
  
What happened next was unclear to see, and the Digidestined would never remember, except a few tangling strands of dream on an early, misty morning, waking too early, and the thoughts would haunt the back of their minds and souls. An ocean rose, a million lights, and somehow, both the enemy Digimon and Undinemon were deleting. Crys started to shimmer and fade away with her Digimon. Her voice called out to them, "Thank you! Maybe I'll see you again soon!" and then, the next thing they knew, they were standing in a silent, empty Digital World, flecks of water spotting their clothes, the sheer lack of sound and movement vacuum-like.  
  
Tai broke the silence. "Nobility, huh?"  
  
Joe smiled. "She'll be fine, you know. She'll make a great Mary Sue." 


End file.
